Dems armed with Palin opposition

Sarah Palin may be a complete stranger to most of the American public, but there’s an important subset of the population that’s doubtless already very familiar with John McCain’s surprise vice presidential pick: Democratic opposition researchers.

While the central line of attack looks to be her inexperience — and, by extension, her running mate’s age, there are other hits to come.

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In a state whose politics have been defined of late by oil scandals, Dems will no doubt seek to link her to scandals involving indicted Sen. Ted Stevens (who offered an endorsement of her Friday) and Rep. Don Young. She’s also clashed with McCain over Arctic drilling — she wants drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which he has continued to oppose.

But most of all, Democrats are zeroing in on an ongoing probe into Palin’s role in the firing of the state’s public safety director, who had reportedly refused to sack Palin’s estranged former brother-in-law.

Audiotapes released last month reveal that aides to the 44-year-old governor pressured Safety Director Walter Monegan to dismiss Trooper Mike Wooten, after Wooten allegedly threatened Palin’s father during a messy child custody fight with the governor’s sister Molly.

Monegan refused to do so and was fired on July 11 and replaced by an official who had previously been suspended for sexual harassment.

Palin said Monegan was let go for failing to fill trooper vacancies and invited a close examination of her role in the matter. The Alaska state legislature obliged, allocating $100,000 to investigate. The results of the probe are expected on Oct. 31, less than a week before the general election.

But Troopergate II isn’t the only issue Democrats are pushing. They are going straight after Palin’s perceived strengths: ethics and good government.

Palin, who when she became governor sold Gov. Frank Murkowski’s state-owned jet and canceled Stevens’ much-maligned “bridge to nowhere,” was also a vocal critic of oil field services giant Veco, a major player in Alaska politics that's now accused of improper relationships with Stevens and Young.

According to an Anchorage Daily News clip e-mailed to reporters, Palin accepted $5,000 in contributions from company executives and their wives during her failed 2002 lieutenant governor’s bid — which represented about 10 percent of her minuscule war chest that year.

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"Now we can talk about Ted Stevens and Don Young and Republican corruption every day," said a delighted Democratic strategist. "That's great for us."

But Republican Rep. Candice Miller, who represents Macomb County, Mich., considered a bellwether swing district, said the ferocity of the Democrats’ efforts reflect fear of a candidate who can seriously challenge them among working-class women.

“Democrats are scared; they are having a meltdown,” said Miller, who was planning to skip the GOP convention next week before Palin was announced. “They’d better do their opposition research as fast as they can, because they only have a couple of days to find something on her before she takes over that convention.”

Other nuggets Democrats hope reporters will mine over the next two months:

— Palin didn’t back McCain in the primary. She stayed neutral in Alaska’s January primary — perhaps on account of McCain’s opposition to drilling in ANWR. “A lot of us are sitting back and waiting to see if there will be new players in there," she said in 2007. "That’s probably why that box that says ‘none of the above’ is so popular right now."

— Mayoral performance. Palin, who portrays herself as a fiscal conservative, racked up nearly $20 million in long-term debt as mayor of the tiny town of Wasilla — that amounts to $3,000 per resident. She argues that the debt was needed to fund improvements.

— Stevens and Young, redux. Palin has distanced herself from the state’s two most popular politicians, but both appeared at Palin fundraisers during her 2006 gubernatorial bid.

— The environment. As governor, Palin vetoed wind power and clean coal projects, including a 50-megawatt wind farm on Fire Island and a clean coal facility in Healy that had been mired in a dispute between local and state governments.

— And, maybe, censorship. According to the Frontiersman newspaper, Wasilla’s library director, Mary Ellen Emmons, said that Palin asked her outright if she "could live with censorship of library books.” Palin later dismissed the conversation as a “rhetorical” exercise.